//------------------------------// // Chapter Twenty Two- After Action // Story: STAR TREK: EQUESTRIA // by Alicorne //------------------------------// CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO AFTER-ACTION I was glad of the blanket when I came to. The soul-chilling cold was gone but I was still cooler than I cared to be… but at least I woke up! I laid there and counted my blessings for a bit before squirming the thermal blanket up to cover my shoulders with an annoyed grumping sound. When I opened my eyes I saw that I was surrounded by white curtains on three sides. Behind me was the wall display of a bio-bed, the heart rate monitor muted and flashing away steadily. I yawned and stretched carefully and was grateful not to feel anything worse than a stiffness in my wounded thigh. Twenty-second Century Medical Science was a truly wonderful thing! Unlike my Dear Sunny I come awake in an instant. The muted quality of the lights told me that it was late… or very early… and the small bit of warmth snuggled into my cleavage told me that I wasn’t sleeping alone. Big surprise! I picked up the blanket and peeked inside. Our Favorite Faery sat there with her legs curled up beneath her with her head stretched out on the curve of my left breast. I was starkers, of course. Well, I guess my uniform was a write-off… but you’d think somepony would have at least given me a gown at least! Sunny’s doing, no doubt… One bright, black eye opened as I stirred and Tyllae smiled at me before yawning. The little mite got up and stretched fore and aft before trotting up to nuzzle my muzzle. “Hi-hii, Starry!” She whispered. “Put blankie back down an stay warm! Tyllae can tell Starry is still cold!” She pointed with a forehoof imperiously, the very picture (In miniature) of yet another Medical Tyrant. “You don’t have to tell me twice, ‘Doctor Squirt‘!” I kept my voice down. “Is anypony else up? Where’s Sunny?” “Tyllae is Doctor Sunny’s’ Number One Medical Assistant! Sunny said so! Yep, yep, yep!” The little Fey beamed proudly, then pointed beyond the curtain. “Sunny inna office, working!” She put a little hoof up to her muzzle and pitched her voice even lower. “But Sunny is really sleeping! Bad, bad, bad Kling-gone hurt Sunny more than Sunny says. Sunny did not heal self until Sunny healed everypony else. Sunny was very, very, very tired but didn’t go to bed. Sunny wants to stay close ‘til Starry wakes up. Sunny says Sunny could not sleep good without Starry being there, anyway!” “You didn’t seem to be having a problem, I noticed!” I gave the Fey a poke in the ribs that made her giggle and cocked my ears to pick up the soft, familiar snore from next door. “Tyllae was mon-eye-tore-ing Starry’s condition! Good little Tyllae lissen to heartie-beats an feel how warm Starry was while Sunny sleep. Tyllae is a very, very, very good Assistant! Tyllae only took a kitty-nap after Tyllae was sure Starry oakey-dokes! … ‘Sides, Tyllae was pooped after helping heal so many of Tyllae’s friends!” A chill beyond the Earth-standard environment took me… “How many were hurt, Tyllae? … Did we lose anypony?” ` Tyllae shook her head vigorously enough to set her antennae bouncing and I sagged in relief. “Nopony died! Starry came closest! Three ponies got all shot like Cappy Caper, poor Dazzle got all cut like Starry an lost her left hoof, but she still killed nasty Kling-gone no-good!” “WHAT?” “Is oakey-dokes!” The Little Mite assured me, “Sunny was able to put back on! Dazzle all better real, real, real soon! Tyllae was very, very, very worried at first. Tyllae does not know how to re-grow Pony parts! Not like apple tree! Sunny did ‘sir-jer-ree’ an fixit all up. Is what Sunny was doing when Starry fell down! Tyllae is very, very, very impressed with how good Sunny is at healing! Dazzle inna nex bed, sssh! Dazzle must rest, Sunny!” I let my head flop down onto the hard Medical pillow and thanked Celestia for little Faeries and Alicorn horns! “Oh, an poor Stimmy-bolt tried to jump down ontoppa Kling-gone who hurt poor Dazzle an missed an broke his arm! All better now! Stimmy-bolt was very, very, very embarrassed but Tyllae told him not to be. Tyllae said he was very, very, very brave… just unlucky!” I couldn’t help but chuckle, thinking about the young buck. I imagine he jumped down off the high-bay in Engineering, one of the very few elevated places in the whole of the ship that was big enough to have an exposed second floor. Well, I probably would have done the same thing. Good job he didn’t break his neck! A rumbling whisper came from beyond the curtain to my left… “Is good ting am not vindictive Pony or might have angry words with bigmouth Executive Officer! Very rude to wake up everypony in Sickbay, da?” “ I haven’t been asleep for a while now!” Dazzle’s voice came from my right. “Glad to hear you up and about, Commander! I’ve been hearing all sorts of horror stories about you. I was beginning to get worried!” “Bah!” Caper snorted. “Would take guillotine to take Good Commander down, not some eentsy-teensy Klingon pocketknife! Eh, Starry-pushka?” At the cost of baring more of my upper torso than I was comfortable with I was just able to reach out and slide the curtain between Caper and myself away far enough to see him sitting up in his bed, bare-chested with a large, glittering dressing on his shoulder. The old Pegasus positively beamed at me! “Good Morning, Starry-bubula!” He said. “Is good to see you again!” His eyes twinkled. “…Though I have never seen so much of you before!” He added, playfully before turning his attention to his hooves under the blanket trying hard for my sake not to grin! I snatched my blanket up so high that my own hooves popped out into the chilly air. Damn it! “Feh!” He waved a dismissive hoof. “You have nothing have not seen before… on smaller chassis, that is!” He stuck his tongue in his cheek and rolled his eyes while I tried, unsuccessfully, to keep warm and modest at the same time. I wanted so much to give him a dirty look, but I was just so happy to see him conscious that I settled for just sticking my tongue out at the old buck! “Yeah, well don’t get used to it, Bub! Somepony took my clothes when I wasn‘t looking!” Caper nodded thoughtfully before sneaking a glance to make sure I was decent. “Do not think old heart could take seeing more! Oi! Am not as young as used to be! Still… was very stimulating! Almost as good a coffee first thing in morning!” Tyllae had flitted up to take the other curtain in her teeth and back-fluttered to drag it back to reveal Dazzle lying on her side with her good hoof propping her head up and her bandaged one draped over her hip. Oh, sure! She had a gown! “Hay! What’s going on over there? You two doing some sort of new physical therapy I haven’t heard about?” Caper leaned ‘way forward to see around me. “Ah! Is good Security is here! I tink maybe Commander Starry-Eyes is trying to stage coup to remove Captain by giving heart attack! You can handle Captain’s light work and haul Cossack to Brig, da?” “I’ll bop her one with this thing!” She raised her bandaged hoof. “It’s numb as a block of wood, anyhow.” She pursed her lips and considered me. “… Might have to wallop her more than once, though! Good thing she’s still feeble!” “I’ll show you how ‘feeble’ I am! Oh, you two are so gonna get it…!” “ What’s all this bloody noise, then?” Sunny stood in the doorway of her office with her arms crossed, her mane in a shambles, her uniform wrinkled, and generally looking like a hundred yards of bad tunneling. The familiar too-early-in-the-morning glare in her bleary eyes blazed and she never looked more lovely! “Hi, Honey!” I smiled. “Heya, Doc!” Dazzle waved. ‘Good Morning, Good Doctor!” Said Caper, cordially. …Tyllae zipped for cover behind the curtains! “ ‘Honey’ my Cutie Mark!” She stomped a hoof! “Is it no too much t’ ask th’ lot o’ ye remember yer in a bloody Recovery Ward n’ not at a bleedin’ slumber party? Or did ye even give a though t’ other Ponies in th’ other room tryin’ t’ sleep?” A series of voices chimed in from the other room… “We’re ok in here, Doc!” “Keep it down, willya? I’m trying to win my money back from Stimbolt!” “Shut up and deal!” ‘HOOSH!” Sunny thundered! “Or it’ll be in me t’ prescribe twenty-four hour Romulan enemas fer all ye hooligans! N’ you!” She shook a finger at where Tyllae was cowering. “What kind o’ Assistant are ye? Did I no say they were all t’ be restin’ instead o’ carryin’ on like so many foals on a field trip?” The rest of the Third Watch Medical Staff gathered in the doorways but stopped short of coming directly into the line of fire! The little mite flitted up and hovered in front of My Darling looking hangdog and waving her forehooves! “Not Tyllae’s fault! Everypony sleepy-sleeping last time Tyllae looked! ‘Sides, Tyllae was keeping special watch on poor Starry mosta time! Tyllae can’t be everywhere at once! An Tyllae is very, very, very tired, too! Tyllae is sorry, Sunny! Don’t be all mad at Tyllae ‘cause poor, little Tyllae tooka little, little, little nap!” She looked so woebegone that, nude or not, I wanted to get up and fetch Sunny a kick to the shins! But the wrath evaporated. Sunny’s bark is far, far worse than her bite! “Ah ken, Ah ken!” She flapped a hoof and cooed to the distraught Faery. “Dinna ye be mindin’ me, Tyllae-ma-dear! C’mere!” She reached out and gathered the grateful little Fey in for a quick nuzzle. “Yer still me number-one Assistant ‘n that’s a fact! ’ Tis this lot I’m upset wi’!” She frowned at us, then broke into a huge yawn. When she finished she suddenly looked as worn out as she felt. “What’s th’ bloody time, anyway?” “Brekkist time!” Tyllae said with Utmost Confidence. (Tyllae couldn’t read a chronometer, of course. As far as she was concerned there were only five times that counted; Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snack-time, and Bed!) I looked up to the time display on the bio-bed. “It’s five hundred thirty-six hours, Hon. By the time you check us over and discharge us we should just be able to make Breakfast.” Sunny quirked a dangerous eyebrow at me. “Oh? N’ is tha yer professional Medical Opinion, is it? Ye look through yer tellyscope n’ leave the Docterin’ up t’ me, Miss I’m-too-tough-’t-leave-me-post! Feh! If we had more Ponies like ye, we’d hae fewer Ponies like ye!” She grumped and stifled another, even huger yawn before fixing all of us with a critical look. “Well… th’ Good Captain I’ll certify as fit fer duty. If he promises no to do anythin’ stressful for a day or two, that is!” Caper raised a hoof in a pledge. “Will not be flying through hoops on Recreation Deck any time soon! Now where is shirt?” He threw his blanket down to his ankles revealing that he was still wearing his pants. …Of course he was! “In th’ bloody recycler, o’ course! Where else do ye ken?” Sunny snapped at him then turned her gaze to Dazzle who carefully sat up one-hoofed and swung her bare legs over the side of the bed expectantly. Sunny crossed to her and carefully held her bandaged hoof. The tips of the fingers stuck out of it as far as the last knuckle. She stroked the end of her index finger with her own… “Like a block o’ wood, ye say? Can ye feel that?” “It was like wood when I woke up. Now they all feel kinda zingy… like my hand fell asleep and is just coming back to life.” Sunny fussed with the dressing and scrutinized her fingers. “Aye n’ yer no far wrong fer thinkin’ yon! Good job ye fetched yer hand wi’ ye when ye got here…” “Waitaminnet!” I said. “You carried your own severed hand into Sickbay under your own power?” Dazzle looked at me like I’d suddenly grown a trunk! “Well I couldn’t just leave it there on the deck, now could I?” I cocked a hairy eye at Doctor Bligh. “I’m getting gigged for being macho but it’s ok for her to swagger in to get body parts sewn on? I’m sensing some sort of double standard here!” “Hay!” Dazzle said, defensively. “I was able to put a tourniquet on my wound! Sickbay wasn’t three minutes away tops.” She shrugged. “All part of the Security job, Commander. …Though I wish they’d issue us some sort of body armor for situations like this! Am I ok to go, Doc?” Sunny gave her hoof a last inspection. “Hmmm… Go see Nurse Green Tea t’ get dressing changed. Have her take a wee look, if she thinks ye’ll be ok have her put a splint on it n’ get it bandaged up tight again. Th’ nerve’s regeneratin’ nicely but they’re still thinner than a shysters promise. Ye can go back on light… light…duty, mind ye! If ye pick up anythin’ heavier than a stylus I’ll be havin’ yer horn for a coat hook n‘ I‘ll kit ye out wi‘ a brass hook as a lesson t‘ all would-be Doctors! Ye ken? If ye feel any pain coom back here at once. If not, then coom back at end o’ shift, duty, watch or whatever ye bloody call it and we’ll get ye started on some physical therapy. Now g’wan wi’ ye!” “Read you loud and clear, Doc!” Dazzle offered Sunny her good hoof and they shook. “Hey, thanks Doc. For everything!” She leaned in closer and added, rolling an eye my way. “I don’t care what the Commander says, you’re all right!” She hustled off the bio-bed with a hop and went to see the rest of the Medical staff. Sunny turned toward me and crossed her arms… “You’re a veritable Holy Terror down here, aren’t you?” I said. “Luna in lavender socks! If I ran my Department like this I’d get lynched! Can I get some clothes now? I’ve had enough sleep for a week and I’m ready to get back to work!” I gave her my best winning smile…. Which faltered under her steady look. “…Um, please?” “Ye’re goin’ nowhere, Lassie!” She stabbed a finger at the readout behind me. “Yer core temperature is a degree n’ a half doon n’ th’ only reason I dinna gi’ ye another transfusion is that yer bloody Augmentation is a-bringin’ yer blood count up so fast I didna want t’ drown ye in yer own juices! Now while I’m morena wee bit satisfied wi’ th’ way yer Femoral Artery is comin’ along, th’ nerve bundle in yer bloody great leg…” “…Then you do think my legs are too big, don’t you?” She squinted at me so fiercely that I shut up at once! “As I was bloody saying…! Yer nerve tissue is different enough that it’s provin’ difficult t’ regenerate them as quick as I’d like. Och! Dinna gi’ me yon stricken look! Ye’ll keep yer leg n’ ‘twill work just fine but ye must stay put fer at least twenty hours! That means lyin’ still! No bloody runnin’ round, climbin’ ladders, no exercizin’ on yon bloody grav plate, and ESPICIALLY no takin’ on th’ bloody Klingon Deep Space Fleet in bloody single combat to th’ bloody death!” She loomed over me and, so help me, I cringed and tugged the blanket up to my neck while her lavender eyes blazed! “But… it was only one Klingon. And I had help! …I thought he killed you, Sunny! I couldn’t let him just walk away after that!” “Oh, aye! There were three bloody great Klingons each wi’ a bloody hand cannon n’ a braw, great butcher knife as I recall!” She squeezed her eyes shut and turned away, hugging herself tightly. I could see she was trembling… Caper had come back from the replicator, resplendent in a fresh uniform with Dazzle in tow. They both stopped short. Caper touched the Security Crewpony’s shoulder and hooked his thumb silently back toward the other ward. They exited quietly while Tyllae settled on Sunny’s shoulder and worked herself under her mane to nuzzle her ear. I reached out and stroked her leg. “Sunny? Honey? I can understand why you’re angry with me and I’m sorry. …I did what I had to do. …For the Ship, for you! Goddesses! I thought you were dead! No way was that Klingon ship gonna get the chance to do that to anypony again!” Sunny whirled around and grabbed me up in a hug that I felt, Augmentation or not! She sobbed quietly into my mane. “Starry, Starry! I was so scairt! As scairt as when th’ Bombs went off whin I was a wee filly! Ye’re just like Daddy, a-puttin’ yerself in harm’s way like that! Yer Starry Eyes ‘r gwin t’ git ye killed! I lost Momma, I nearly lost Daddy a hundred times, and I nearly a-lost ye! What kind o’ Universe is it we live in that th’ Ponies ye love have to risk their lives like that? What were Ponies then tha‘ we‘re like this now?” I’m not a pithy Pony, normally, but I had an answer that always worked for me when I asked the same question. “Sunny… a few Ponies have to walk in harm’s way so the rest never have to know fear. Even Celestia had guards! We’re out here so all your nieces and nephews… my Daddy and Uncles and Aunts can live without a relative care. That’s why there’s a Starfleet, Honey. It’s not the Equestria of the stories… but it’s all we have nowadays.” I patted her rump. “Your Solar Cross is what my Starry Eyes look up to, Honey! Don’t cry!” She did, anyway… and so did I. Well, it was a release! Tyllae, smooshed between our manes, wriggled out and flitted up to hug Sunny’s nose. “Go ‘head an cry, Sunny! Crying helps! Just don’t cry forever! Things always get better! Tyllae knows! Tyllae’s whole world went floowie an here Tyllae is all safe an sound with both Sunny an Starry! Summer always comes no matter how long Winter lasts! Trust Tyllae! Remember how Sunny told Tyllae even Nightmare Moon didn’t last forever? Just like that! Brave Ponies, not Faeries, not Dragons, not even Celestia, could make things all better inna end. Tyllae thinks Star-fleet is just like that! Just wait an see! Tyllae is right, right, right! If Sunny can’t be brave alla time Starry an Tyllae always be here to help just like Sunny an Starry helped Tyllae!” The little Fey gave her an elfin kiss and sketched another ‘x’ across her teeny chest, the ultimate Faery sincerity apparently. …Well, sincere is sincere no matter how its expressed! I gave my Love another hug. “Keep the Faith, Sunny! You’re the beacon that always draws my Starry Eyes back! Always!” Sunny wiped at her eyes and gave Tyllae a delicate kiss. “Right, then!” She gathered herself up gave me the kiss I’d been waiting for all morning! “Just dinna do that t’ me again! My heart nearly froze whin Willowbark brought ye in n’ I saw yer condition. ‘T’was Coventry all over agin! You just lie doon n’ I’ll get ye ‘nother thermal blanket. N’ I’ll see what I can do ‘bout settin’ the bloody heat up a wee bit in here. Really! Would it hurt some Starfleet Engineerin’ Boffin t’ be puttin’ a simple thermostat here ‘n there?” She ran her fingers through her mane and tried to smooth out her rumpled uniform. “But first I ken I hae t’ go n’ apologize fer bein’ a right bloody Harpy t’ everypony first thing in th’ mornin’.” She wiped her eyes again and studied her reflection in the bio-bed display. “Och! I’m a bloody mess!” She muttered. “You’re dead on your hooves,” I conceded, “But you’re still lovely, Honey!” “I’m no as dead on me hooves as ye were twelve hours past, Missy!” She retorted, then bent to give me another sweet kiss. “Cease yer flatterin’! I’ll fetch ye another blanket straightaway!” She did, too! Before I knew it, she draped it over me expertly and tucked me in like a foal before squaring her shoulders and going out into the outer ward to deliver her apologies. Tyllae fluttered in for a soft landing between my breasts. “Sunny gonna be oakey-dokes now, Starry! Sunny was just scared for Starry. Yep, yep, yep! Don‘t worry!”